White House Press Briefing (3/28/07)

I miss Tony Snow. His expert abilities in the art of BS has kept me tuning in to the White House press briefings for almost a year. Not that Scott McClellan was awful, he was just unable to BS with the ease that Tony Snow can. And I won’t fault Snow for what he does. He is not there to tell the unvarnished truth to America, he’s there to present the views of the Executive Branch of our government. So to be angry at Tony Snow for doing his job, wouldn’t be fair.

Granted, as much as I love to watch the press briefings, they can get tedious. Someone from the press asks a probing question, Tony denies the premise/refuses to speak on an ongoing investigation/doesn’t know. If you are a supporter of Bush, you love him, but if you are not, he is an amazing villain. But for those of us who demand some entertainment value from our C-SPAN programming, it is AWESOME!!! Think about it. Why do people watch “House?” Because Dr. Greg House is an entertaining asshole. You wouldn’t want to be anywhere near the guy, but you love watching him. My tuning in to watch Tony Snow is a very similar thing. I don’t agree with him, I find his evasion and deflection of pointed questions frustrating, but he is a master at what he does.

So I say with all sincerity that I hope that Tony Snow gets better soon. You know who also wishes Snow gets better REAL soon? Dana Perino. She REALLY hopes Tony heals up quick. You see, reporters will only give a person slack for just so long. They smell the blood. They smell the fear and anxiety wafting from the podium. And as much as they know Dana Perino is not going to budge from the script, they will enjoy making her squirm. On to the…

-Highlights-

-Bush doesn’t like the Iraq War Supplemental that just passed the House and the Senate. And guess what? He’s going to veto it. Dana Perino reiterated that the President already warned Congress (on 3/9/07) that he’d veto any bill that tied a time table or restrictions to supplemental funds. God, why doesn’t Congress listen to the President anymore? Oh, that’s right! Because Republicans aren’t in power. Now as much as I’m dismayed by the all the extra stuff added to the bill, I have to give up a little golf clap for making the President veto a bill that does send money to the troops. It was sneaky and underhanded…Kudos!

-Helen Thomas got a question in. She asked that in light of Iraq not having any connection with Al Qaeda before the invasion, isn’t Bush responsible for drawing Al Qaeda to Iraq?” Dana’s Answer: “Absolutely not!” I’d give Helen Thomas credit for trying, but we all knew how Dana was going to answer that one. Way to play hardball, Helen Thomas!

-More on how the President refuses to “legislate failure.” This leads into Dana Perino telling all of us at home how it’s all gonna go down: “Send the bill up, [the President] will veto it, and then we can get on to the business of negotiating.”

-Questions about Sam Fox’s nomination as Ambassador to Belgium being withdrawn. Did it have to do with the $50,000 he donated to the Swift Boat people in 2004? Most likely, but that won’t stop Dana Perino from accusing others of partisan politics (BTW, the President most certainly did NOT know about that when he nominated Fox…wink, wink). Dana, you may be a bit nervous up there, but Tony-wan has taught you well. Come on, America! Sam Fox was voted “St. Louis Citizen of the Year!!!” What more do you want from an ambassador?

-If you were confused about the “unknown Iraqi bloggers” they are Omar and Mohammed Fadhil. TheWhite House describes them as “two dentists from Baghdad.” I smell a new Hollywood Shakespeare update brewin’!

-Lester Kinsolving asked his two questions. I know a lot of people might like to think of Kinsolving negatively, but I do not. The man asks some wild questions, but he brings up issues that not many are prepared to deal with. His first one dealt with the British soldiers held by Iran (Bush and Blair spoke on video to each other about it). The second question dealt with the Mecca Agreement between Hamas & Fateh. Kinsolving asked “Does the President believe that PA President Abbas truly desires to be a partner for peace, when only weeks ago Abbas and his Fatah party joined the Hamas terrorist government after signing the Mecca agreement, which does not call for peace, but for more terrorism, and demands the so-called right of return?” Dana side-stepped that question. Which is a great way of telling one and all that you are not prepared to answer.

-On the Justice Dept. scandal, many e mails from White House employees came from non White House e mail addresses. How can this be explained away? Dana Perino: “…there are certain individuals, limited individuals, that have responsibilities that may straddle both worlds, both White House and then have interface with political organizations. And so in those cases, they’ve been given these emails in which — in order to avoid any possible potential violations of the Hatch Act, they use those emails. Of course, people are encouraged, on official White House business, to use their official White House accounts. Sometimes there might be a gray area and people have to make a judgment call.” And there was no other information available. But I’m sure we’ll hear about this again soon.